Endless Space 2 Hits Early Access Next Week

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Interstellar 4X strategy game Endless Space 2 [official site] will launch onto Steam Early Access on Thursday next week, October 6th, developers Amplitude Studios announced today – narrowly missing its planned September launch. The initial release will only come with half of its factions, but that’s early access for you – it’s not finished, yeah? Fraser Brown dug a preview version he played, so it sounds like it’ll have a good heart. Spacefingers crossed, anyway.

Here’s a chunk of what Fraser thought of that preview version:

“I confess that I might be sold on the early game already. The influence of Endless Legend is clear and welcome, with its quests and fleshed-out, unique races, but it’s the new way of looking at the people who make up these space empires that’s left me most intrigued. The need to juggle all these different species and population groups within the faction is a wrinkle that, until now, hasn’t really been explored in a 4X game – at least not to this extent. The big question, then, is how will Endless Space 2 handle the late game, where so many 4Xs fall apart.”

“We kind of know the drill now. :) The apprehension and pressure are still here nonetheless: we want to make a good first impression and want to deliver a version that should be as polished as what we’ve gotten you used to. Therefore, the game you will be able to play next week is the alpha version of Endless Space 2: it will be missing some features which aren’t implemented yet, but will also include mechanics we want to improve with your help. Note that the core gameplay will be there, so you’ll get a good idea of what the game is about already.”

12 Comments

They’ve done some interesting things with user input during the EA period, like polls to decide which feature to focus on, or a contest for faction design where the winner gets their faction included in the final game. At least in the past, they’ve struck a good balance between user input and maintaining creative vision.

Also, the main weakness of the studio (IMO) has been in AI programming, and EA can provide testing and feedback for improving it.

I don’t think that’s plausible, especially with Sega now backing the company.

This will be the fourth game they’ve rolled through an EA period. Whether this particular game is a success or not remains to be seen, but they know what they’re doing with Early Access. I think they were one of the first companies to introduce the concept.

Imagine this will be pretty good and as polished as most of their titles. Endless Space was a solid, good game, but not outstanding. Hopefully this will build on that foundation. Good times for lovers of space 4x these days.

Lets hope it’s not such a dreary spreadsheet-fest this time. The first one had promising gameplay, but it was almost entirely devoid of any personality whatsoever. They seem to have picked up a few tricks in the interim though, so hopefully this will be more like Endless Legend and less like Endless Space in the character department.